I’ve been working in journalism in Oregon for nearly 20 years now and during that time I’ve been sickened by the decline of quality news coverage in the state.
It’s a terrible situation, the result of many factors that I don’t have space here to flesh out in-depth.
The Oregonian in Portland, the Register-Guard in Eugene, the Statesman-Journal in Salem, the Medford Mail Tribune, the Ashland Daily Tidings, the Bend Bulletin – all of them leading newspapers in their communities and in the state, are either mere shadows of what they used to be or no longer exist. Those that survive have depleted staffs and a resulting lack of news coverage, both regional and local. One of the biggest losses was coverage of legislative activities in Salem.
I could go on and on, but I won’t here, except to say that it’s not just large papers that have suffered. The difficulties experienced by The New Era and Lebanon Local and the recent demise of the Brownsville Times illustrate this.
Suffice to say, local and state government are not getting the scrutiny they need. Citizens must have information about what’s going on to be educated voters and be able to make sure problems are addressed in a timely and functional manner. That isn’t happening at the level it did even 20 years ago, and the problem has gotten rapidly worse over that span.
Thankfully, I’m certainly not the only one who’s noticed this. Others, including some of the most experienced and accomplished journalists in the state, have been distressed by this.
The good news is a response has been mounting.
In local communities, online news organizations have appeared, supported by their communities, which have provided often high-quality news coverage of local affairs. Oregon still has news deserts, particularly in the southeast counties, but concerned citizens – including journalists – are stepping up to address the lack of watchdog journalism in various communities around the state.
On the statewide level, two efforts are particularly noteworthy.
One is the Oregon Capital Chronicle, which was founded in 2021 as a nonprofit news organization dedicated to “deep and useful reporting on Oregon state government, politics and policy.”
When the Capital Chronicle first appeared, I discussed with its founders the possibility of providing direct access to its stories from our website. That didn’t materialize for various reasons, but we have occasionally run articles produced by its reporters and we have steered readers to the Chronicle website, oregoncapitalchronicle.com.
Although “media bias” websites may rate the Chronicle’s opinion as swinging to the left, my personal experience is that most of its actual reporting is quite factual and not heavily biased, and most of those sites seem to agree. The Chronicle’s offerings provide us with information about what’s going on in Salem that is not consistently available anywhere else.
But let me move on.
The other significant response to the problem of lack of scrutiny, particularly in Salem, is the Oregon Journalism Project.
OJP is a response from some big players to the crisis facing journalism in Oregon. Here’s how they state the problem that I touched on above: “Advertising dollars that once supported journalism have moved to Craigslist, Meta, and Google. Across the country, this has driven local newspapers out of business or resulted in zombie newsrooms. Out-of-state ownership and business-model disruptions have left Oregon with media enterprises unwilling and unable to devote sufficient resources to quality, independent local journalism.” You can read more at www.oregonjournalismproject.org/the-problem.
These are veteran journalists who know their way around in state government, one of them Nigel Jaquiss, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for investigative reporting or exposing former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt‘s sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl while he was mayor of Portland.
The founder and director of OJP is Mark Zusman, who has been editor of Willamette Week for more than 40 years. During that period the newspaper has provided consistent scrutiny of Oregon politics and government, including its investigation into the business and political activities of then-Gov. John Kitzhaber’s fiance and First Lady Cylvia Hayes, which ultimately led to Kitzhaber’s resignation.
OJP’s goal is to provide “regular stories on matters of real interest to Oregonians, while shining a light on those institutions whose proper functioning is central to our quality of life. State and local government — along with the federal government’s impact on Oregon — is our main beat.”
Faithful and scrutinizing features will notice a new header button on our website, sweethomenews.com, titled “OJP.”
We have begun listing OJP stories there because these reports are things Oregonians need to read, things they should know – stories their local newspaper doesn’t have the resources to cover effectively on our own. Not only that, their stated emphasis is to focus on news important to rural populations.
Here is just a brief sampling of some recent stories produced by OJP:
- Rural truckers are paying too much and urban car owners are paying too little – highway costs are supposed to be allocated equitably. It’s not happening.
- A coalition of businesses and environmental groups interested in the Bottle Bill urged lawmakers to abandon a proposal that would add a 5-cent surcharge to the existing 10-cent deposit collected on beverage containers.
- Gov. Tina Kotek has made increasing Oregon’s housing supply her single highest priority, yet the state has failed badly to hit her target of producing 36,000 new units per year. OJP takes a look at one flaw in the state’s approach.
- Marion County Circuit Judge Thomas M. Hart issued a temporary injunction blocking a December executive order by Gov. Tina Kotek. The December order decreed that state agencies “shall” enter into project labor agreements with labor unions for most state construction projects.
Any of that sound interesting? They should. These are stories that we plan to post as often as possible for you to scrutinize.
One more point to ponder: In my opinion, this is, by and large, pretty straightforward, nonpartisan news coverage telling us things we need to know about what is going on in our state, the type of things that haven’t gotten anywhere near the coverage they deserve prior to these efforts.
These journalists are telling us what’s happening, reporting the good and bad without a lot of spin either way. Oregonians need straightforward journalism, the kind that keeps government more honest and transparent.